Fuctifano

Only the final which is now set in stone given Aberdeen can't be in both that and the SC final on 25th- those are Thu 23rd and Sun 26th May. I'd be very surprised if the others aren't Tuesday and Friday nights given they're on BBC but nothing official as yet, maybe get confirmation tomorrow, they maybe had contingency plans if Aberdeen won yesterday which are no longer required

For next season we already have a relatively large number of players signed up both for a club at this level and for our recent past. GK: McCready, Stewart (if we exercise option). Erm. Not great. Defence: Milne, McBeth, Williams, O'Reilly and there was a lot of talk Muirhead had triggered an extension even if nothing official. I'm keeping McBeth here for now but we might try him in midfield again next year. Midfield/ Wingers: Fitzpatrick, Lawless, Bannigan, Stanway, Mackenzie, Lyon, Robinson Forwards: Graham, Diack. That's 16 players - although I don't think we'll sign Stewart (if Doolan has a functioning pair of eyes), Lawless has got to be a large question mark moving forward given the severity of his injury and his age, though obviously I hope I'm wrong on that, and Lyon might get moved on during the summer especially if we're signing another young midfielder. f**k knows what we'll do with half these guys if we go up , but I'm willing to find out.

I think even if Airdrie lose to DU on Friday which would realistically confirm us as 3rd given our GD advantage, we'll start this game with our strongest team available, but depending on how it's going the likes of Graham and Fitzpatrick might only play 60 minutes or so. The argument for resting players in this game and not at Tannadice would be if we played a shadow team on the last day and got thumped then does it affect the team morale going into the playoffs? You can argue these things either way, probably one of those situations where the result vs Airdrie means we've done the right thing if we win and wrong thing if we lose regardless of what option we take. I agree with playing O'Reilly ahead of Muirhead to get him some game time as well

To sort of answer the original query: Since we went to 4 tiers in 1994-95 the longest spell in 2nd tier without moving up or down is 10 years by QoS from promotion in summer of 2002 to relegation in 2012. A couple of teams have done 9, Falkirk and Morton. The longest in the 3rd tier (and this surprised me) is Brechin who spent 11 years without going up or down from 2006 to 2017, when they got promoted into the championship. Tailed off a bit after that it's fair to say. Airdrie next best with 10 which ended last summer. So Elgin quite comfortably in the lead albeit it still is harder to get out of the 4th tier in the wrong direction. Morton have had the most seasons in the 2nd tier since that date with 22 and Forfar in the 3rd tier with 20 , but Forfar have never had more than 7 in a row in the third tier.

Has that ever happened before for us? Seems unlikely - certainly prior to 10 team divisions.

Model has QP just about odds on vs Arbroath. Re: the playoffs, even thought we've finished 4th last 2 seasons and could still do this season, I still think it makes more sense for 2nd vs 3rd to play off followed by the winner vs 11th as that evens the number of games played and also 4th in a ten team league shouldn't have a shot at promotion. Then the argument is there's no real advantage for finishing 2nd over 3rd other than having the 2nd leg at home. Part of me likes the idea that the 2nd place club would go through if it's a draw in such a scenario, but that's effectively giving them a goal of a start and if you phrase it like that it seems like madness. As said, unless we somehow end up with a stronger TV deal meaning we're less reliant on gate money, the format isn't changing any time soon. 12-10-10-10 is certainly the most stable it's been in my lifetime, been like this for nearly 25 years whereas in the 80s and 90s the top flight kept changing between 12 and 10 teams.

They named an incomplete bench for both legs (7 subs for first leg and 6 for second) while we named a full one. While we would have had a couple of kids on the bench that had no chance of getting on I'm not sure that the larger squad argument is true.

In terms of omens we beat QP 4-0 last year after being 0-0 at HT not long before the playoffs. Hopefully same outcome.

Looks like McInroy wide right in our usual formation.

Would have said Graham was our only deserving candidate but that Mcmillan might have got it due to no one else really standing out in that position.

O'Reilly, Robinson and Bannigan all back in the squad- even if only Robinson starts then the bench should be a bit stronger than last few weeks.

I don't think anyone has missed them in Scotland albeit it was even worse here due to playing each other 4 times a season already. Surprised at the amount of shock from EFL clubs tbh.

On the development issue and players being better when they leave us than when they sign, I think it's more relevant to the guys who have come through the youth academy: Stanway, MacKenzie and maybe Lyon, although I can see Lyon being mutually consented in the summer or loaned out for the full last year of his contract. McBeth is probably a special case despite him being 24 years old given he was in the 6th tier before Christmas and is another one we need to make sure develops. If we're serious about integrating the youth team players into the first team squad then they're the guys who have to improve; from the outside it's been a waste of a year for MacKenzie, a few games out of position at the start of the season and he might now get a run in another position which isn't his own with Lawless being injured. He's not really any further forward in establishing himself than he was this time last season. Stanway I've thought for lots of this season hasn't quite seemed up to this level yet but I also think the potential is there- by all accounts he had a great game on Saturday so hopefully he's getting there. I suppose it can take some time - going back to McBeth, it took Doolan and Erskine probably 2 seasons to make the jump from juniors to being good Championship players, then another year to be standouts at Championship level and then onto being comfortable the Premiership.

Up until Adeloye and Lawless' injuries I don't think we'd been that bad for injuries this season, from Thistle Archive site we've played 42 competitive games so far and here's what each player has missed Lawless : 1 (and counting obvs ) Muirhead: 1 -and that was suspension Stanway: 1 Fitz: 2 Graham: 2 - 1 of which was suspension Milne : 2 - as Graham Alston: 3- but hasn't missed a game since he signed as signed before the final LC Group game Bannigan: 4 Neilson: 6- some of that would be international duty plus he didn't sign til after the LC group stages so not sure he's missed a game injured McInroy- 7 - again he didn't sign til after the LC groups so 3 games injured at most That's a reasonable core of guys who have missed next to no game time Then we come to (list isn't comprehensive): Williams: 11 Adeloye: 11 McMillan : 12- mostly at start of season IIRC O'Reilly 12 Robinson : 17 Ngwenya: 20 (didn't sign until after LC ) Considering we had about a ten minute turnaround between last season finishing and this one starting, I think we've done OK to only have McMillan from last season's guys miss any significant time. Robinson's recent career history is injury plagued and I don't know whether we took a punt on O'Reilly knowing he was injured but hope it would clear up sooner than it has. The issue for me was that was had no depth in certain positions, one of which is now biting us severely with Lawless injury.

Yeah intangibles like that and injuries can't be factored in without me having to make a guess so I just leave it as is.

Just realised I never posted latest probabilities etc: For title- DU 98.8% Raith 1.2% For promotion playoffs the model won't predict a large enough GD overturn for either Dunfermline or Ayr to get in at this stage. For avoiding 9th - as it stands An ICT win tonight moves that QP number into the mid 90s, a defeat lowers it to around 70 and draw keeps it around the same.

Was sceptical about this but reviews seem good so might give it a go. I'm on pleb Amazon Prime so do you get adverts every 10 minutes with Preston from Fallout 4 saying a settlement needs your help?

I wasn't debating whether it was a foul or not but would agree with this below, Araujo has made no attempt to play the ball even if Barcola has made the most of it. However if they've given the foul for pulling him back and the pulling back continues into the penalty area I thought it was a pen.

Thought that was a pen as he still had his hand on the shoulder in the area.

I really haven't watched much of the Premiership this season so hard to know even of the guys that I've heard of (refuse to believe Aston Oxborough is a real person) whether they're a candidate to drop down to championship level, on the likely assumption that's where we'll be next year. We need a keeper, right back most likely, probably a defensive midfielder unless we're planning to try McBeth there again, at least one and probably two wingers, plus a backup for Graham or competition if he starts to decline. I normally go FFS when folk mention signing old players but who wouldn't want SOD back for one last go? Would take Byrne as well but sure I read something on here when he signed for Raith on loan that for family reasons he needs to stay close-ish to Dundee or something. McInroy has been decent but I don't think we've got the best out of him, however I also think this level seems like his ceiling. Can see him being at Raith / Dunfermline / Falkirk next season. Innes Cameron might be alright in the Adeloye / Dowds role of Graham backup, don't know if he's been injured / out of favour / both but only played 3 times since November. Chris Kane would be better I think but Dunfermline might have first dibs. Always liked Andrew Shinnie as well but will be 35 at start of next season so not really what we need, and he's from the north east so probably see out his career up that way

Agree, we took ours to a dog friendly pub once after being out a beach walk with them and I don't think they've ever been as nervous apart from going to the vets, wouldn't sit still so we never let them off the lead. We were going to have lunch but just had one drink and then left.

Deadly Derek Underwood in his prime, now just Dead Derek Underwood

The tee shot at twelve was the last genuine bit of jeopardy imo, he can lay up at the two par fives and take the water out of the equation while still probably playing them under par.

I know it's not news but 3 hours for 11 and a bit holes in a two ball for the leaders, jesus christ.

Someone phone the course pretending to be his wife FFS